lifestyle

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August 17, 2009

Streets REALLY Made For Walking!

Posted by breana under lifestyle, pictures
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The streets of NYC, of course! I <heart> New York in a major way. Maybe it would be different if we lived there full-time–surely it would be, if only because we probably couldn’t afford to live in an apartment large enough for all of us to not be on top of each other all the time! But, assuming that we could somehow magically afford a 3 (preferably 4) bedroom apartment in a building with an elevator (because climbing stairs carrying kids and groceries has got to be a circle in mommy-hell) in a location with a good public school and near a park (the last part actually seems pretty doable, just judging from our jaunts this weekend)…well, I think that it would be great fun. NYC reminds me a lot of two of my favorite places–Paris and Istanbul. Having a bakery around the corner. Access to fresh fruits and vegetables without having to trek to a supermarket. Many independent shops and restaurants providing variety and quality. Ample people-watching opportunities. CUPCAKE SHOPS. Whole shops devoted to cupcakes. And buttercream frosting. Need I say more??

Enjoying our delicious desserts!

Enjoying our delicious desserts!

*I say quality because I believe that having a variety of small, independent shops and restaurants provides the consumer with higher quality and better value. This is how: a small restaurant in a city like the ones mentioned above has to provide quality and value; if it doesn’t, patrons have a multitude of other places to patronize, and there are many other restaurateurs waiting to take over the location if you fail. With lower population density in the suburbs, there are fewer owners–or landlords–wanting to take a chance on small businesses. Thus, chains–restaurants, stores, supermarkets–abound.

 

August 3, 2009

These streets were made for walking

Posted by breana under health, lifestyle
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A friend over at The Nuthouse shared a link to www.walkscore.com, which purports to show how walking-friendly your neighborhood is by charting the distance (as the crow flies, btw, which is not equal to walking distance) to various amenities. My neighborhood received a very respectable 77 out of 100, rating it as “Very Walkable.” I was, frankly, shocked. Looking at the list of “amenities” they cite within 1 mile, however, shows where the disconnect exists. For “grocery stores,” 3 separate 7-11 stores make up 3 of the 8 they list. The others consisted of several small ethnic markets and a now-closed supermarket 0.7 miles away. While I love–and shop at–at least one of the small markets, they don’t offer any fresh foods or staples like milk. For milk I’d have to go to one of the 7-11s, and pay at least $1 more gallon.

To me, this does not make our neighborhood such a great walkable place when doing errands.

Grocery Stores

0.32 Mi

7-Eleven Food Store

Restaurants

0.29 Mi

Burger King

Coffee Shops

0.5 Mi

Dunkin’ Donuts

Bars

0.72 Mi

L a Bar & Grill

Movie Theaters

0.56 Mi

Arlington Drafthous

Schools

0.34 Mi

L-3 D P Associates

Parks

0.35 Mi

Alcova Heights Park

Libraries

0.49 Mi

Arlington County Li

Bookstores

0.63 Mi

BC Comics

Fitness

0.42 Mi

Gym Technologies

Drug Stores

0.61 Mi

Rite Aid

Hardware Stores

0.55 Mi

Allwine Associates

Clothing & Music

0.3 Mi

Euro Lantino
 

June 23, 2009

Sleeping

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In the end-of-term, off-to-Turkey busyness of earlier this spring, I wrote about my need for more sleep. Well, as it turns out, I did some major catching-up in Turkey. To wit, I fell asleep whenever and wherever I could. I regularly–like, every single time–fell asleep in the car. How could I not? We were invariably going somewhere with a longer-than-20-minute ride, after having eaten a big meal, sitting in the warm sun, with an almost-always sleepy baby on my lap. How could anyone not fall asleep under those conditions? Especially given my already sleep-deprived state?

Now that we are all back on East Coast time, we’ve settled into a much better sleep pattern. Fast Turtle is no longer waking us up at 5:30/6am. Now he sleeps until 6:30 or even 7:30am. Yay! Hurrah! The downside is that Baby Bug is regularly sleeping late enough that she’s not even awake before I leave for work. Boo!

Of course, new challenges in the form of an office move (mine) to a location 12 miles further away from home (but it’s a reverse commute! reverse commute, hah!) will doubtless throw a kink into our newly-organized routine. Isn’t that the way it always is? Particularly with little kids, a new pattern only lasts long enough for you to think tentatively, hmm, maybe THIS is the new normal, and then all the balls go flying in the air and you have to try to catch them all over again.

 

February 27, 2009

Are things falling down around you?

Posted by breana under lifestyle, thoughts
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This fall, a contributor to the DC Metro Moms blog write about living in the economy today and how it’s affecting her family. She writes:

Every day I keep an eye on the economic news, and I have a growing sense of dread and doom. We have tightened our belts in lots of little ways. Rarely eating out. Happily accepting hand-me-down clothes. Ever since the summer, I have been very conscious of saving on gas and electricity. We came close to buying a larger house a few months ago, but with the real estate market sinking around us, it seemed far too likely that we would end up owning two homes, a risk we just couldn’t afford.

But am I just putting a bandaid on a gaping wound? Is saving $15 at the grocery store with a judicious use of coupons or buying more clothes at the consignment shop and less at the mall going to make a difference? Is life as we know it on the verge of collapse? Maybe I’d also rather live in denial than face the scary facts.

Although it’s been a long time now that our little family has been finding every possible way to be frugal, it does seem like things are suddenly, drastically, harder.

What do you think?

 

September 26, 2008

Where’s the love for working moms?

Posted by breana under feminism, lifestyle
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You might have noticed that I have added a blogroll to this page. I’ve just listed a few blogs that I enjoy.

What I didn’t include was all the mom-productivity-organization-homemaking blogs that I visit now and again. Although I do get lots of helpful tips from ladies like Rocks In My Dryer, SimpleMom, and many others, the one thing that makes me hesitate is that they are all writing from the point of view of stay at home moms. Now, I’m not one to give any credence to any kind of SAH vs. WOTH mom chasm. I think 90% of our concerns are exactly the same, and I’m always happy to hear about how my SAH mom friends have come up with a new menu planning exercise or chores schedule or how much they enjoy their MOPs group.

But I wonder, where are the working mom productivity tips? Without getting into any touchy areas, we working moms have a lot of homemaking things to do and not a lot of time at home to get everything done. It seems like a lot of the suggestions I hear are for “outsourcing”–get a nanny rather than taking kids to daycare, get a housekeeper once a week, have groceries delivered, have diapers delivered, go to one of those food preparation places and make 12 meals at once to pop in the freezer, get a mother’s helper to be there during the mad evening rush, find a college student to come in the mornings to take the kids to school…all great suggestions. If you fit into the small–and increasingly microscopic–demographic called “those with disposable income.” The assumption that, because you’re a two-income family, you have disposable income is my biggest problem with all these suggestions.

In a time–and location–where paying for preschool is a struggle, I know that there are plenty of families out there for whom two incomes is absolutely necessary to stay afloat, and there’s no wiggle room in the budget for any sort of outsourcing. And the unfortunate fact is that all the money-saving tips–like packing a lunch, bargin shopping, getting and selling clothes at consignment sales, making gifts, eating meals at home–all take more time away from spending time with your kids, much less planning elaborate meal preparation schemes, re-organizing the pantry, or *cough cough* vacuuming.

So, what can we do? Where are the resources for financially and time-strapped parents who have to work, can’t outsource anything, and still want to spend time with their kids?

Waiting for suggestions…

 

September 12, 2008

Modern Feminism: the new Supermom?

Posted by breana under lifestyle, politics
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My parents have a picture frame they bought when they were newly married, inscribed Love means never having to say you’re sorry. I’m reminded of this when reading a recent Slate article on the selection of Palin as VP; the author quips:

Feminism, to the GOP, appears to mean never having to say you’re exhausted.

Both sentiments are, frankly, ridiculous, as anyone who has ever gone to bed angry over the un-washed dishes in the sink could tell you. Just as love means ALWAYS having to apologize, even when you’ve done nothing wrong, even when it irks every fiber in you to apologize–being a feminist should mean being able to announce without shame that you cannot do it all. Superwoman does not exist. (All we ever had was the slightly lame, and, frankly, more than a little trashy-looking, Supergirl.) SuperMOM really does not exist, if that means doing it all–house, kids, marriage, work–to the highest of standards, with no help.

So, if “Supermom” is the new line that the GOP is selling, well, I’m not buying.

 

September 10, 2008

Choose Your Life

Posted by breana under family, lifestyle
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Someone I used to know–and now only follow virtually–wrote recently about the importance of choosing how to live your life. Of all the choices we make, the choice of what pattern our daily lives will take, what rhythms will drive us and what pleasures will soothe our souls, seems to me the most fundamental.

I’ve had the priviledge to make a lot of important choices over the past few months. I left a job that stifled me and made me unhappy to take one closer to home, for less pay, but which has ended up being much more fulfilling. I decided to go back to school, and although this is a choice I struggle with every evening I’m not home with my kids or husband, ultimately it’s a choice I’m making for my personal growth and, if all works out, for the benefit of my family. Our daily rhythms have all had to do some adjusting, and it’s happening with more or less grace and tranquility depending on the time of day or day of the week!

Still, though these recent choices have brought me into a life much more in tune with who I am and want to be, there’s so much more to change. When I think about times in my life when the pattern of my days was most in harmony with my natural inclinations, what always comes to mind are two times in my life: when I was a university student and when I was teaching English in France. Obviously, those are two times in my life when everything was much less encumbered–no car, no house payments, no bills, no kids, no husband–and I had plenty of freedom of time and movement. And while it’s not the encumbrances of my life today that I would wish away (at least not the husband and kids!); it’s the little things, the stuff that just seems to get in the way.

I liked being able to walk to work, and to walk home for lunch or just sit in the cantine with the other teachers and enjoy a meal with some leisure. This was France, there was no rushing lunch, even on a school schedule! I liked having a bakery with fresh baguettes on the corner. I liked the slower pace of life, whether it was small-town France or small-town America. I loved living and working in the university environment, for the opportunities to dip into so many different interesting topics, the excitement of back-to-school time, the fun and challenge of working with students. I liked slipping into a cafe or coffee shop near school to write and ending up eavesdropping on all the discussions happening around me. I loved taking classes, loved teaching them, even loved grading papers and being waylaid by students on the way home with just one last question. I appreciated the dedication to safe and healthy foods, to protecting workers and not bowing to those with money and influence. I liked knowing that cultural and historic sites were living, breathing places that were as much a part of daily life now as they were 500 or 1000 years ago, and I loved to walk through the cobblestone streets and the grand cathedrals, thinking of those who had come before me to walk or worship in these places.

Of course I’m idealizing both of these times–and of course there were plenty of aspects of life in these places that were less than ideal. But just sitting down and thinking about what I loved in the life I led then is helping me to think about where I want the life I’m living now to go.

 

June 23, 2008

Life Goals: Decade #3

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I am a big one for making New Years Resolutions. Although I rarely keep them, there’s just something about marking the passing of time by acknowledging both what you are grateful for and also what you’d like to have more of in your life that I find irresistible. My resolutions are usually of the banal “lose weight” and the well-intentioned “learn how to_______” variety, with a “be more appreciative” thrown in for good measure. Only on the last one have I made any progress over the years!

Naturally, as I head into my 30th birthday coming up this summer, I’ve got lots of ideas percolating around about what I want to accomplish during my thirties. [Coincidentally, my friend Robin, blogging at There is More to My Life, wrote recently about her life goals, and I thought it was an opportune time to continue the theme.]

When I graduated from college, my life goals for my twenties were the simple, big ones: I wanted to have traveled, started a family, and be working towards a PhD. Easy, right? Well, I did manage to live abroad for 2 years, so I think I made a serious dent into #1. Obviously, the family is a check, a happy, blessed check. As for the last one, well, I can only barely give myself credit for it, as I’m finally taking a class this summer that is starting off the long, long path towards my PhD. Although, now that I pause to reflect, I did finish my master’s degree already, so what am I thinking? I deserve at least one quarter credit. ;)

I’m actually really excited about turning 30, probably in no small part because I’m so happy with my life. I really enjoyed my twenties, I got to do a lot of cool things, I met my wonderful husband (we’ll have been together over 5 years when I turn 30, which means that I spent more than half my twenties with him…wow!) and we had our sweet, darling babies that really are just the light of our lives…all in all, my twenties have been pretty good to me.

As for my goals for the next decade, I think they are a nice mix of the practical (hopefully attainable) and lofty (pie-in-the-sky). I do want to finish my PhD. I do want to have a career that is personally fulfilling and where I feel like I am making use of my unique qualities–that the path I find is one where I am called to really help improve the lives of others and leave the world, at least my small corner of it, a better place than I found it. I would love to channel my decades of on again-off again writing into an actual book that is published. I want to learn to bake bread and make yogurt. I want a real vegetable garden. I want to live healthfully–not so much for the vanity of losing weight and looking better, although I do have that vanity–but also because I want to be the mom who rides bikes with her kids and runs after them and gives them an appreciation for healthy foods and the wife who grows old with her husband. I also want to live healthfully for the world around us, and although I’m still figuring out exactly what that looks like, it’s so exciting to be living in a time where so much of the national–and international–dialog is about how to live in harmony with our place in the greater scheme of things.

What are your goals?

 

May 21, 2008

Did you miss us?

Posted by breana under lifestyle
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Please say yes!

It’s been ages, I know. Does the excuse of “I’ve been busy” hold any water? Let’s see, in the past 3 months I’ve interviewed for several jobs, almost gotten one, got one, resigned the old job, worked one day at the new job, got another job, left new job #1 for new job #2, started new job #2, traveled to NYC, to Florida, took two weeks off to just be at home with the babies, landscaped our front and back yards (okay, so my involvement in that was minimal), started WeightWatchers (more on that later!), had Kerem’s 3rd birthday party…I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting. It has been busy, honest!

The quick stats: new job at George Mason, yay! Where I get free tuition, yay! I’m now working 2.1 miles from home, yay 5 minute commute! Can you tell I’m thrilled?

After handing in my letter of resignation at the end of April, I had a wonderful two weeks off before starting the new job this week (not by planning–by accepting one job and then getting a second offer two weeks later–leaving 2 weeks free between jobs). We went to the lake for a long weekend–where it rained almost constantly!–but otherwise the babies and I just had fun hanging out at home, and daddy was even home with us for much of the time. We played in the garden, went to the park, baked pumpkin bread, and–probably most important–cleaned out my mind of all the baggage or bad juju or whatever it is that Meredith Grey is calling it these days. A few days definitely wouldn’t have cut it; I needed the two weeks to really move on, and hallelujah I feel like I have!